Television trends reveal how abortion was portrayed in 2024
Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health released its annual study that looks at how reproductive care was depicted on popular shows.
At least 67 plotlines on television involved an abortion last year.
This past week, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, a research department at the University of California at San Francisco, released its annual study of television programming that details how TV shows depict abortions.
“Given the tumultuous abortion access policy environment, we expect entertainment content creators to continue to find creative ways to use their platform to tell stories about abortion providers, patients, and the landscape as a whole,” the report’s researchers wrote.
According to the report, characters of color represent a higher percentage of fictional abortion seekers than white characters for the first time. Still, the vast majority of characters did not reflect the demographics of today’s abortion patients, particularly concerning class and parenting status.
In a notable increase from last year, about one-third of plotlines depicted political or logistical barriers to abortion access, including the prohibitive cost of care.
Half (50%) included plotlines about characters of color seeking abortions, while white characters make up slightly less than half (45%).
About one-third of this year’s characters received emotional support before, during, or after their abortions.
Less than half (42%) of this year’s plotlines included a character obtaining an abortion or disclosing a past abortion. The majority of depictions were either considerations of abortion or discussions of abortion generally.
About one-third of this year’s television plotlines depicted political, logistical, or financial obstacles to abortion access, an increase since 2023.
While more than 60 percent of abortions involve medication in real life, there was a record low number of medication abortion depictions. Of the 67 plotlines, only two included depictions of medication abortion.
Girls on the Bus, an HBO Max political drama, gave the first depiction of abortion access via telehealth. One character has a video consultation with an abortion provider, who has to send abortion pills to Illinois because she can’t receive them in Missouri. Though she encounters some logistical headaches along the way, the woman eventually retrieves the package of her abortion pills and has an uneventful abortion surrounded by supportive friends.
Several troubling themes emerged, including the high prevalence of coerced abortions and the return of “false pregnancy” and “averted abortion” storylines that mention but ultimately avoid portraying characters obtaining abortions.